Another property at the Xerox Centre in Santa Ana is getting a new owner.
A 2.8-acre development site that sits along the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway and was long slated to hold an office development sold for $4 million recently, according to brokerage data.
The land, at 200 N. Cabrillo Park Drive, changed hands for about $1.4 million an acre, CoStar Group Inc. data show. The seller was Irvine-based developer Crown Realty & Development Corp.
Crown had proposed building a six-story office building on the land, which is next to the 15-story Xerox Centre office tower. The development was initially slated to be about 182,000 square feet, although there was talk that a larger building could also go on the land.
The project never got off the ground in the last recession.
The property’s new owners could be looking at other types of development for the property. It’s expected that the site could be considered for multifamily development rather than offices. The land is zoned for high-density residential, in addition to offices, according to brokerage data.
Property records show the new owner—listed as BR Cabrillo LLC—being affiliated with Robert Bisno, a longtime developer in Santa Ana and a familiar face in that city’s political scene.
Officials with ties to Los Angeles-based Vineyards Development Corp. are also involved in the new ownership group, according to property records.
Vineyards Development and Bisno recently were working together on another apartment development in the South Coast Metro area of Santa Ana, The Met at South Coast.
That 3.1-acre site, at 200 E. First American Way, was entitled to hold 271 units, but Bisno and Vineyards never broke ground on the project. The land was sold in October to Beverly Hills-based developer Legado Cos. in a $17.3 million deal overseen by a court-appointed receiver.
Legado is expected to move ahead with apartment development at the site following the land sale.
The sale of the land at 200 N. Cabrillo Park Drive comes as another deal involving a Xerox Centre property also is in the works.
The State Fund Building, a six-story office on the opposite side of the 2.8-acre site from the Xerox Centre tower, is under contract to be sold to the Orange County Transportation Authority for a little less than $65 million.
The sale could close next month if OCTA’s board approves the purchase at its next scheduled meeting.
St. John Sale
Great Far East Inc.—a commercial real estate buyer with funding from Chinese investors—has made another purchase in Irvine.
The Irvine-based investor recently completed the purchase of 17422 Derian Ave., a 69,280-square-foot industrial property just off Jamboree Road near the Diamond Jamboree shopping center.
The property is currently occupied by Irvine-based clothing maker St. John Knits, which is believed to have a lease of four or more years for the site.
Terms of the sale weren’t disclosed.
The buyer got a $10 million loan from Cathay Bank to fund the purchase, according to property records. Dallas-based Lincoln Property was the seller.
It is the first local deal in a few years for Great Far East. The company also owns the nine-story Irvine Spectrum office that holds the operations of restaurant chain Yard House USA Inc., as well as a few other area buildings.
Breaking Ground
Aliso Viejo-based Shea Properties has a new apartment project under way in San Jose.
The developer has begun construction on Ascent, a 650-unit complex near the intersection of the 101 and 85 freeways.
The project, being built in a partnership
with Montreal-based Ivanhoé Cambridge, is expected to cost more than $200 million to build.
Ascent, in addition to a variety of high-end features in the apartments, will include a 4,000-square-foot fitness center and spin room, a resort-style pool, half-acre park, and a kitchen and bar with a pizza oven, according to the developers.
The complex should open by the spring of 2015.
It will be Shea’s second apartment complex in San Jose and its third in the Silicon Valley. It owns apartments in California and Colorado.
